[thalesmello]

They already have Facebook Pay on messenger, and WhatsApp is mostly unheard of. Maybe it doesn't make sense to launch it in the USA.

WhatsApp is however overwhelmingly used in Brazil, and highly lacking good Venmo-like apps. I did not like the Brazilian Fed getting in the way with regulations before it even launched. Sends the wrong message to foreign investors considering Brazil.

[jamisteven]

Mostly unheard of?! Besides my parents, I dont know anyone that doesnt use WhatsApp in the US.

[thalesmello]

Most people I interact with in the US actually use SMS or iMessage, that's why I have hold this view. It might be a bit dated though.

[Barrin92]

yes I think it's somewhat dated. I travel (well traveled) to the US frequently and there was basically no Whatsapp user I met. (compared to 50% of the pop. In Germany). Apparently now there are almost 70 million users in the US.

It really always baffled me why Americans were using text messaging for so long (and complaining about lack of encryption and so on)

[TMWNN]

>It really always baffled me why Americans were using text messaging for so long

Because our mobile plans gave us gigantic buckets (thousands of SMS messages per month, then unlimited) before most other countries. It was the lack of such that drove the growth of WhatsApp and similar systems elsewhere.

>(and complaining about lack of encryption and so on)

Yeah, no one does that, any more than people complain about the lack of encrypted email.

(Yes, yes, it's possible to do both. My point is that most people don't bother in the first place.)

[moooo99]

> (and complaining about lack of encryption and so on)

Well most people here in Germany constantly complain about the lack of privacy thanks to Facebook and still don't mind using WhatsApp.

I haven't been to the US myself, but I have met a lot of internation students from the US and Canada. All of them were mainly using either iMessage or Facebook Messenger, they were really surprised why everyone is using WhatsApp here.

Anyways, actually privacy focused apps like Threema or Signal don't seem to be popular anywhere, so I don't think there is a significant difference

[NineStarPoint]

Most people I know only use WhatsApp specifically with friends who came from/are in other countries. Even then I personally know more people who use LINE than WhatsApp for some reason. Internal to the US, very few people I know use WhatsApp for group chats. (I expect its an age thing though, and that younger people are more likely to be using WhatsApp).

[driverdan]

I've never used WhatsApp and as far as I know neither do my friends. I've never had anyone request to use it either.

[ta17711771]

Less than 10% of my network on WhatsApp.

[moon2]

> and highly lacking good Venmo-like apps

There's a few popular apps that allow you to share payments in Brazil, such as:

PicPay Rappi Mercado Pago